Tuesday, August 03, 2004

articles august 03

No" to Nader "Yes" to PeltierLeft wing party nominates Indian activist for President

Sam Lewin 8/2/2004

The California Peace and Freedom Party has nominated jailed American Indian activist Leonard Peltier as its presidential candidate this year.

The move was a blow to independent candidate Ralph Nader. Nader spoke at the party’s convention this weekend, the day before they officially nominated Peltier. Nader needs 153,000 valid signatures by August 6 to put him on the presidential ballot this November. Kevin Akin, chairman of the California Peace and Freedom Party, said delegates decided to bypass Nader because Peltier’s candidacy is “very important.”

“The Peace and Freedom Party convention meeting the weekend of July 31-August 1 nominated Natice [sic] American activist and long-time political prisoner Leonard Peltier as the Party's candidate for President of the United States. Peltier, who has been in Federal prison for 26 years, will appear on the California ballot along with vice-presidential candidate Janice Jordan of San Diego, a single mother, a long-time activist against the prison-industrial complex, for immigrant rights, for the freedom of Leonard Peltier. She brings to the ticket her history of commitment to the Peace and Freedom Party's call for socialist democracy, the rights of labor, an end to all U.S. intervention abroad -- including immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Iraq,” states the party’s website. full article

BABOQUIVARI PEAK, Ariz. - Tohono O’odham elders on horseback and young runners packed in vans, joined the Fourth Annual Peace and Dignity Journey, as runners arrived after crossing 5,000 miles from Chickaloon Village, Alaska on their way to Panama.

Near the international border, William Antone of GuAchi District was among Tohono O’odham elders traveling with runners from the sacred mountain of Baboquivari Peak, home of I’itoi the Creator, to tribal headquarters in Sells, Ariz.

"There are a lot of prayers and offerings on this whole journey. The main thought of this run is strengthening our spirituality. There are a lot of young people taking part and they will be the ones to carry on. They are our future leaders," Antone said.

Pamela Anghill of GuVo District, mother and college student, was waiting for runners at the Tohono O’odham capitol in Sells when she learned that women are being honored by the run.

"What a blessing for the women to be honored. I am honored that this is for me," Anghill said. full article

The other American history

State to give students a broader picture of Native Americans
By Tiffany Erickson
Deseret Morning News

As a boy Virgil Johnson loved Kit Carson. To him Kit Carson was a great cowboy, an outstanding Indian scout and an American legend.

But later as Johnson, a Native American himself, grew up and learned of other accounts of Kit Carson from different perspectives in American Indian history, Kit soon fell off the pedestal.
Kit also moved a lot of American Indians out of their area and, as a government agent, like some other early frontiersmen, he helped make a lot of promises to the tribes that were broken, Johnson said. "Once I found out the truth I didn't think he was that great a person."
Now Johnson is a history teacher at Granger High School in Granite School District. For years he has taken extra time to research Utah and U.S. history to make sure he provides his students with information on historical events from multiple perspectives rather than just a textbook account — something Johnson said is generally written from a European perspective full article

FARMINGTON — Abigail Yazzie, a Navajo, remembers as a child regularly drinking water meant for cattle, horses and sheep. The water was pumped from the ground into a trough by a windmill. It turned her teeth brown.

She didn’t know any better at the time. Her reservation home, located a couple of miles away, had no running water. A generation later, Yazzie, who earned a master’s degree, goes back to visit her dad’s house. It still has no water. Thousands of Navajos across the 27,000 square-mile reservation live this way.

Yazzie was among those who spoke Monday evening at a public meeting at the Farmington Civic Center on why the Navajo Nation needs to obtain its own water rights.

The meeting was chaired by the Interstate Stream Commission, the Navajo Nation and the state engineer. It was held to disseminate information on the revised draft for the proposed Navajo Nation water rights settlement on the San Juan Basin and to hear public comment. full article

A branch of Canada's largest legal organization is urging the federal government to guarantee aboriginal people a permanent place on the country's highest court.

While Justice Minister Irwin Cotler has ruminated about appointing an aboriginal person to the Supreme Court of Canada, the Canadian Bar Association's aboriginal law section wants Ottawa to go much further.

In a resolution to be presented at its annual meeting in Winnipeg later this month, the association is asking the government to ensure "all three founding peoples of Canada" — English, French and aboriginal — are continuously recognized in appointments to the court. It could mean changing the Supreme Court Act to do so, says a key proponent. full article

Judge to take banishment caseTwo women sue tribe after being kicked out

Sam Lewin 8/3/2004

A federal court has ruled it has jurisdiction over a case involving a California Tribe that banished two of its members from the tribal rolls.

Attorneys for plaintiffs in the case are hailing the decision as a landmark.

“ The significance is that it sends a signal to this tribe, and other tribes in California and all over the nation, that if tribes want to disenroll and banish their members, which we think they have the right to do, that they need to provide basic procedural protection for their members,” attorney Leah Castella told the Native American Times.

Castella works for Bingham McCutchen, the San Francisco law firm that argued on behalf of two women kicked off of the reservation. The case involves the Tachi Yokut, a gaming tribe based in Lemoore, CA, that operates the lucrative Palace Indian Gaming Center near Fresno, a Class-III gambling establishment that generates over $100 million a year. The tribe currently has 700 members. full article

"Except as required for defense purposes in a time of national emergency, the government shall not deliberately destroy any object of antiquity, prehistoric ruin or monument ..."

- Makua lease provision held by the U.S. Military

The new Stryker/Military Transformation proposal by Senator Inouye will exacerbate the already desperate situation of many Hawaiians, who comprise a good portion of those without permanent housing and at least half of the present prison population.

"All of the Hawaiian poor come to Wainaie, all of the homeless come to Waianae," said Sparky Rodrigues. "If the military comes in here with their cost of living allowance with the Strykers’ new expansion, then rent will go up, and they’ll bring in 30,000 people. Property values will go up. More Hawaiians will be forced onto the beach as homeless, and they are going to be criminalized. full article

Having given the NAACP the cold shoulder, President Bush did find it in his compassionately conservative heart to address a National Urban League gathering.

It was during his Urban League speech that the president alluded to the popular myth that gets trotted out whenever there's a national election approaching: The Democrats take 'the black vote' for granted but 'they' don't really have blacks best interests at heart.

With the exception of Colin Powell, Condi Rice, Thomas Sowell, and Clarence Thomas, I bet just about every black person in America thinks that's hilarious. Me? I'm wiping the tears from my eyes as I write this.

Oh sure, Mr. Bush acknowledged that things ain't perfect in the Grand Old Party, and so forth and so on. But seriously, how dumb does the Republican leadership think black folks are? full article

High Time Bush Defines the Enemyby Ronald Bruce St John

Immediately after 9/11, President Bush addressed the American people, defining policy in the simplest terms. “Every nation in every region now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.” In declaring a War on Terrorism, he defiantly stated his intent to pursue nations providing aid or safe haven to terrorism, suggesting every nation had a decision to make on the issue.

Three years later, the White House has yet to define clearly what constitutes a terrorist organization. The failure to do so has increasingly contributed to the administration’s limited success in making America and the world a safer place. Filling the gap, individuals and groups are adopting their own definitions of terrorism with worrying, potentially disastrous results. full article